Toxochelyid Turtle Peripheral (Genus sp.?)

General Info

Stratigraphic Occurrence

Toxochelyid turtles are very common in Upper Cretaceous sediments throughout the Gulf and East Coast, and Western Interior.  Here are a few reports of this group of turtles :

• Monmouth Group, Navesink Marl of New Jersey (Peritresius ornatus (Leidy))
• Montana Group, Bearpaw Shale of Southern Manitoba (Lophochelys niobrarae Zangerl)
• Montana Group, Pierre Shale, Sharon Springs Member of Kansas and South Dakota (Toxochelys latiremis Cope)
• Montana Group, Vermilion River Shale, Pembina Member of Southern Manitoba (Toxochelys latiremis Cope and T. browni (Hay))
• Niobrara Group, Smoky Hill Chalk of Western Kansas (Lophochelys natatrix Zangerl, Porthochelys laticeps Williston, Toxochelys serrifer Cope, T. latiremis Cope, T. brachyrhinus Case, etc.)
• Selma Group, Mooreville Chalk of Alabama (Lophochelys venatrix Zangerl)

Age of the piece of shell

• The peripheral above was found in Maastrichtian age sediments.

Geographic Occurrence (small list of Toxochelyid turtle reports.  Not comprehensive!)

• Gloucester County, NJ
• Gove County, KS
• Logan County, KS
• Manitoba, Canada
• Monmouth County, NJ
• Trego County, KS
• Wallace County, KS

Remarks

Nice photos of a typical New Jersey Toxochelyid (Peritresius ornatus (Leidy)) can be found in Case:

• Case, G. R. 1992. A Pictorial Guide to Fossils. Malabar: Krieger Publishing, p. 349.